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A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages
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A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages

work by Caldwell
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Robert Caldwell's A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages (1856) was a seminal work that established the Dravidian languages as a distinct family, separate from Sanskrit. Caldwell, a Scottish missionary in India, demonstrated that these languages were not related to Sanskrit, challenging a long-held belief. He identified 12 Dravidian languages, expanding on earlier work by Francis Whyte Ellis, who had first proposed the Dravidian language family concept in 1816.12

The study of Dravidian languages in the 20th century focused on reconstructing Proto-Dravidian, analyzing historical texts, and identifying new languages within the family. A significant contribution was the A Dravidian Etymological Dictionary by Burrow and Emeneau.1

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2 Britannica Sources
  1. Dravidian languages - Dravidian studies
  2. Dravidian languages - The history of the Dravidian languages

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